1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of recording and/or reproducing optical data, and more particularly, to a method of overwriting data in a linking loss area.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since basic recording units of a digital versatile disc-rewritable (DVD-RW) are positioned one after another in a continuous series, in contrast to those of a DVD-Random Access Memory (DVD-RAM) which are divided by physical identifier (PID) areas or buffer fields (extra areas allocated to correspond to a requirement for controlling a spindle motor accurately), it is required that a recording-start point of each basic recording unit in a DVD-RW be precisely located. Here, the basic recording unit of the DVD-RAM may be a sector and the basic recording unit of the DVD-RW may be an error correction code (ECC) block.
Since the basic recording units of the DVD-R and the DVD-RW, which have the same physical formats, are positioned in a continuous series as described above, when data transmission or recording is momentarily discontinued or subsequently recommences, the DVD-R and the DVD-RW use a linking scheme in which an extra area of a next recording-start point is allocated. The sizes of a linking area which is applied to the linking scheme are 0 kilo bytes (KB), 2 KB, and 32 KB.
FIGS. 1A through 1C are schematic diagrams showing conventional data linking methods. FIG. 1A shows the data structure of a 2 KB linking method, FIG. 1B shows the data structure of a 32 KB linking method, and FIG. 1C shows the data structure of a 0 KB linking method. In the conventional linking methods, if the data type in sector information is ‘1b’, it indicates that the next sector is a linking loss area. The linking loss area has no effective data and only stores dummy data, that is, ‘00h’. Therefore, main data recorded in the linking loss area can be replaced with ‘00h’ regardless of reproducing data and therefore correction of an ECC block can be improved.
FIG. 1A shows a data structure in which the size of a linking loss area is 2 KB, and FIG. 1B shows a data structure in which the size of a linking loss area is 32 KB. If user data does not fill an entire ECC block 1, padding data is recorded in the remaining part of ECC block 1. If the data type of the last sector of ECC block 1 is ‘1b’, the first sector (2 KB) of an ECC block 2 or the entire ECC block 2 (16 sectors=32 KB) becomes a linking loss area according to a linking type, and padding data is recorded in the linking loss area.
FIG. 1C shows a data structure in which 0 KB linking is performed after performing 2 KB linking or 32 KB linking. That is, FIG. 1C shows 0 KB link recording in an ECC block 2 (the 32 KB linking loss area) of FIG. 1A or 1B, and user data is recorded from the first sector of the ECC block 2 in which 0 KB linking is performed. However, if the data type is ‘1b’ in the last recording sector of ECC block 1 of FIG. 1C, the next sector, that is, the first sector of ECC block 2, may be taken for a linking loss area and user data can be replaced with ‘00h’. Therefore, an error may occur in this sector, and as a result an ECC error occurs in the entire ECC block 2, and accordingly, data in the ECC block 2 cannot be reproduced.